Acquiring information about a sample prior to a product being deployed is often highly desirable. For example, it is critical to understand how a portion of an airplane wing deforms when subjected to external forces. In another example, it is critical to understand how a material that is to be used in a bridge will respond to particular conditions. In still yet another example, it is desirable to understand properties of an explosive material during detonation, thereby allowing for an explosive to be properly designed for a particular application.
With more detail pertaining to explosives, energetic materials (explosives) research has led to an increased interest in miniaturization of energetic base components (e.g., to microscale sizes). As the energetic base components have reduced in size, a desire for probing behavior that occurs in explosives (during detonation) on the microscale has emerged. Further, more generally, there has been an increased interest in dynamic pressure loading of inner materials. Conventional diagnostics that measure these events are relatively large and typically do not allow for unobtrusive interrogation of physical phenomena of interest in microscopic components or experimental configurations.
In a non-limiting example with reference to explosives, it is desirable to ascertain velocity of a reaction front that propagates from a particular location in the explosive. Existing techniques for ascertaining such velocity require a relatively large amount of explosive material, where measurement devices are placed on the explosives, such as time of arrival devices (TOADS). TOADS are configured to output data that is indicative of the velocity of the reaction front. For some applications and materials, however, use of such a large amount of explosive material does not correlate with practical use of the explosive material (e.g., having a thickness on the order of microns).